Okay, never had to post here before, but recently installed Sims 2 on a Dell Studio 1558 running Windows 7. After a week of tinkering finally got custom content working on two separate limited accounts. (Two people like to play the game,,, but have different CC) But recently tried to package a lot I created in Sims2 so that I could use it multiple time,,, but I can't seem to get it to install thru the self-installer.
The installer says it successfully installed it,,, but then it doesn't show up in the housing bin. Any suggestions how I can get my multi-use lots into the housing bin for multiple placement?

I assume you are trying to make the lot under one user account and then install it under the second? Since if not, you can move the lot (as long as no sims have ever lived in it!) into the lot bin, then place it back in the 'hood from there as many times as you like.

If you are trying to move the lot between accounts, is it just this lot that won't install? How about downloaded lots? Have you tried using the Clean Installer instead of the game's own installer?

I have not tried the Clean Installer yet. And was only working within the account the packaged lot was saved in.
All the custom lots/content currently in the accounts are from backups of the game from a XP machine just copied over to the Win7 machine.
I should add though, that the two accounts running Sims 2 are limited accounts. Simply cause that's how it was set up on the XP machine due to Windowblinds being installed.

So what about Whiterider's other questions? Do other lots install? Can you install downloaded lots? Can you install other downloaded CC? (You can download one thing as a test object, and get rid of it after it successfully installs and shows up if you don't want it.)

It's possible that the lots are being installed into the Administrator's account; have you looked there?

Any CC that is NOT packaged into a self-installer works fine which includes lots downloaded from here. It's stuff that installs via the self-installer that doesn't seem to work. But seems that moving it to the bin did make it multi-placeable. Anytime I tried doing so on my XP machine, it would only place once, thus why I didn't think to try it this time.
As for the admin account,,, I haven't been able to get it to load since I deleted the EA folder from it. Had one of the limited accounts loaded into it for testing,,, but at 7 gigs, it was wasting space on my drive when I finally got the limiteds running.
Basically, seems my issue have been resolved,,,, for the most part. Although seems I still have a problem adjusting a level of the house using the booprop cheat.

Are you talking about lots inside of self-extracting EXE files?

Yes, the self extracting files with the little blue sim in a box symbol.
And now find that can't use the floor elevation cheat either.